Although somebody quite rightly made the point that the NRL has a different number of games. But my point was that if SL is to grow and overall get better than the 50-0 games need to be weeded out. If the latter figures does down to 700-800 than it will be good for the game.

Saying that I don't know to what extent Widnes alone make on that last statistic - I seem to remember Warrington, Saints, Catalans, Hudds posting 70+ scores.

I saw Leeds and Saints and thought they were great games. Didn't see Salford v Wigan but it certainly doesn't dound like I missed much. I would like to think that every team in SL before the match feels they have the potential to win and don't go out simply thinking about minimising the scoring. Does that currently happen?? Who knows. Competition is what drives all sport at the end of the day.

The current rules only allow close margins if teams are very well matched in terms of the type of skills needed for the constant running back and forward - something easy to do in the NRL as it is the national sport,but ###### elsewhere around the world. The current rules are geared to the NRL only. IMO they will eventually push to change the rules towards a 15metre 11-a-side game as players become even more accustomed to the 10m rule. Effectively moving away from core rugby league to some sort of Superhuman game. Unfortunately, this will make the game even harder to play and mean Aussie teams will never be beaten thus leading to an isolated sport like American Football.

So I decide to check it out and I see a post by Lobbygobbler blaming the games problems on the 10m rule and making out like it is a new insightful point. Good to see things have changed...

There have been blowouts this weekend but only the Wigan and Warrington (debateable if it even was) were really predictable. Huddersfield certainly wasn't and nor was Bradford. Leeds as has been pointed out, was competitive for a long time before Leeds pulled away.

Blowouts are a feature of the modern game and don't always show the real nature of a game as with Leeds and Hull. If we had seen 7 predictable victories this weekend in uncompetitive fixtures then there might be something to worry about. As it was we saw some really interesting things, such as two of the blowouts coming from very unexpected quarters (Bradford and Huddersfield) and a shock Widnes victory away at London.

As an aside, it is of course statistically ridiculous to draw any conclusions after a few rounds never mind 2 games.

Even if there were the exact same number of blowouts every year then it is statistically a certainty that one year will see a higher than average percentage in the first rounds, just as it is a certainty that one year will see almost none in the first few rounds. They aren't evenly distributed every year.

You really can't draw real conclusions until you have a statistically significant sample to draw from.

As an aside, it is of course statistically ridiculous to draw any conclusions after a few rounds never mind 2 games.

Even if there were the exact same number of blowouts every year then it is statistically a certainty that one year will see a higher than average percentage in the first rounds, just as it is a certainty that one year will see almost none in the first few rounds. They aren't evenly distributed every year.

You really can't draw real conclusions until you have a statistically significant sample to draw from.

I agree entirely. Clearly, you really can't draw real conclusions from just a few games on opening days. But when has reality ever fuelled Lobby's opinions?

People seem to have in their heads that sports provide game after game of classic encounters. They simply don't.

Football has game after game of really quite average sport. They then have a few classics and the odd finish to the season like last year, which was sporting drama at its very finest.

RU has game after game of terrible sport. Penalty after penalty - they then have the odd close finish which makes people forget about the previous 75 minutes!

Tennis has walkover after walkover during Wimbledon and the major tournaments.

We seem to have this complex about us, and if we get a poor game or a one-sided clash then we have an issue and things need changing. TBH I love watching almost all games of RL - very few bore me. Even one sided walkovers have big hits, great tries, lovely passing moves etc. We never ever get a completely boring 0-0 draw where nothing at all happens like we get in football, or a penalty fest like we get in Union.
It's repeated quite often, but even a 'poor' game of RL is more entertaining than most games of Union and Football to me.

I overheared a Leigh fan come out with a great suggestion at today's game, just after Fev had gone 22 nil up. Perhaps what ought to be done is to follow the ideas often used at under-8s, whereby every time a try is scored, the team looses a player until the scoreline is evened up again*.

*and before anyone says it, yes, I had twigged it was not a serious suggestion.

People seem to have in their heads that sports provide game after game of classic encounters. They simply don't.

Football has game after game of really quite average sport. They then have a few classics and the odd finish to the season like last year, which was sporting drama at its very finest.

RU has game after game of terrible sport. Penalty after penalty - they then have the odd close finish which makes people forget about the previous 75 minutes!

Tennis has walkover after walkover during Wimbledon and the major tournaments.

We seem to have this complex about us, and if we get a poor game or a one-sided clash then we have an issue and things need changing. TBH I love watching almost all games of RL - very few bore me. Even one sided walkovers have big hits, great tries, lovely passing moves etc. We never ever get a completely boring 0-0 draw where nothing at all happens like we get in football, or a penalty fest like we get in Union.It's repeated quite often, but even a 'poor' game of RL is more entertaining than most games of Union and Football to me.

I don't enjoy watching predictable processions. I didn't even when Widnes were handing them out in the Championship.

However, I would only say 1 of this weeks games falls into that category. The Leeds-Hull game was compelling before Leeds pulled away towards the end. The Huddersfield game was very enjoyable for its shock value and for Hudds performance. Much of the game was watched waiting for the inevitable Saints comeback that never materialised. Bradford finished behind Wakey last year (albeit with 1 more win) but looked to have improved greatly this year.

As for Salford-Wigan we were potentially watching 1st/2nd vs 13th/14th at the end of the year. Is it really surprising that this would result in a big score?

I don't enjoy watching predictable processions. I didn't even when Widnes were handing them out in the Championship.

However, I would only say 1 of this weeks games falls into that category. The Leeds-Hull game was compelling before Leeds pulled away towards the end. The Huddersfield game was very enjoyable for its shock value and for Hudds performance. Much of the game was watched waiting for the inevitable Saints comeback that never materialised. Bradford finished behind Wakey last year (albeit with 1 more win) but looked to have improved greatly this year.

As for Salford-Wigan we were potentially watching 1st/2nd vs 13th/14th at the end of the year. Is it really surprising that this would result in a big score?

They may not be for everyone MD, my point is more that no sport has a majority of great games, I think we compare favourably to the majority for entertainment value - we need to be careful not to make changes when something isn't a big issue.

They may not be for everyone MD, my point is more that no sport has a majority of great games, I think we compare favourably to the majority for entertainment value - we need to be careful not to make changes when something isn't a big issue.

I completely agree, whenever the cup final isn't a classic there are fans ready to slit their wrists.

I'm an Evertonian and recently I saw 2 games that were 0-0 and were far from classics. I envy football fans because they are secure enough to go away and either write it off as a poor game or blame their own side for playing badly. They don't feel the need to question football itself because they know it can entertain.

It is a strange phenomenon that RL fans, even though we also know it can entertain and will see plenty of entertaining games throughout the year, panic if we see a dull or a one-sided game.

I'm sure in your way you will see this as some sort of victory until I do the decent thing and point out the original post was a light hearted comment not designed to be over analysed for a cheap "victory".

You and your facts, again!

When will you learn? Repeat after me, "T' game were much better years ago when I were a lad."

See? It's obvious.

Comments like these were tiresome a while back. Now they are just coming across as stupid. Padge hasn't hit on a bit of whinging here, he's poking holes at a bit of light hearted banter between like minded fans.